This invention is directed to scrapers particularly suited for removing the coating layer on a lottery ticket over the game symbols printed thereon so as to expose the game symbols for visual inspection. The scraper may have a cavity in its body for the containment of lottery tickets.
In some government jurisdictions, lotteries are legal. These lotteries are often produced, managed and protected by a governmental entity. Many present-day lotteries have as the principal gaming piece individual tickets which are sold to the gambler. These tickets have printed thereon a series of symbols, and the rules of the lottery provide that a payoff will be made to the holder of a certain combination of symbols. In order to prevent selective lottery ticket purchasing, the symbols are covered with an opaque layer prior to purchase. After purchase, the buyer remove a portion of the opaque layer in order to inspect his combination of symbols to determine whether or not he is entitled to an award payoff.
In order to provide protection to the lottery system, a numerical or other series is also printed on the front of the ticket at the same time that the symbols are printed thereon. This numerical series serves to confirm the symbol combination on the winning ticket and permits the lottery operators to inspect for lottery tickets which have been physically manipulated or for completely counterfeit tickets. In order to maintain the integrity of the numerical series which serves as a proof number, the numerical series is covered with the same opaque coating. The lottery rules require that the coating over the proof number numerical series remain in place until the winning ticket is inspected by employees of the lotter operator. Thus, the scraping off of the coating must be selective. Any appropriate scraper is desirable to remove that portion of the coating which hides the game symbols from visual inspection. It is also appropriate that a guide be associated with the scraper in order to quickly remove the coating over the game symbols without removing the coating over the proof number numerical series.
In order to serve the largest market, the cost of such lottery tickets is usually kept low. Currently, one dollar is a common price for such lottery tickets. The lottery tickets are usually sold as individual items. Since some gamblers prefer to gamble with more money than will buy just a few tickets, a large number of tickets must be individually transferred with a large sale of tickets. Thus, it is also desirable to package tickets in groups so that they may be sold in groups.